On the Trail of the Saucer Spies: UFOs and Government Surveillance (Paperback)

Now when you read that last sentence it makes a kind of natural sense. After all, you would think, of course the Intelligence agencies are going to watch Ufologists and they are going to smack them sharply on the nose like a naughty puppy if any of them get too close to any kind of truth.

Except that’s not how it was. It seems that the spooks couldn’t care less what researchers found out about UFOs, which isn’t very nice of them. Their interest it appears was more to do with the concern that some Ufologists might be using an interest in the subject as a cover for less patriotic activities. Like for instance spying for a foreign power, and so on.

And Nick Redfern should know as he himself was watched by the UK’s Special Branch for a number of years. You see, Nick kept company with very bad men. Matthew Williams, Matthew Bevan and Robin Cole were all dastardly villains because they too were Ufologists and rather than sit lamely back and fiddle with their widgets, they got off their backsides and either broke into restricted government buildings to get answers or hacked into the Pentagon’s computer system, or, as in Robin’s case, had the temerity to actually write a pamphlet on what the GCHQ (UK equivalent of the NSA) knew about UFOs.

But not satisfied with just consorting with these grave threats to the security of the realm, Nick further compounded his attraction to Special branch by standing outside Porton Down, the UK government’s centre for biological warfare research, and noting down the car registration numbers of people driving in and out of the base. Why would a Ufologist want to do that for God’s sake? I’m afraid the answer is in the book.

Nick covers Adamski, Newton/Scully/Gebauer, Van Tassel, Albert Bender, Men in Black, the real story behind some alien abductions, APEN – a mysterious group of UK individuals from the political far right, the Berwyn Mountain incident, Jenny Randles meeting with “Robert”, animal mutilations, the escapades of Matthew Williams, Matthew Bevan’s hacking into the Pentagon, the Provost and Security Services, direct approaches to Ufologists by AFOSI, and much, much more. In particular, Nick has the assistance of a former Special Branch detective who he calls The Sandman who, years after the events described in Nick’s book, is quite happy to confirm and clear up and explain what was going on and why.

This is an excellently researched and well written and informative book that casts Ufology in another perspective. It is a perspective that some may feel uncomfortable with but you need to remember that this is a Nick Redfern book and Nick isn’t in to tucking us up all safe and snug at night. What this is is a further clarification of the UFO reality and that reality isn’t exactly what a lot of Ufologists currently believe it to be.